Joint Press Release by the Regional Response Plan partners in Turkey

Regional Response Plan for Syrian Refugees Revised in mid-2014 highlights a big funding gap.

Now in the fourth year of the conflict, there are 2.9 million Syrian refugees in the region. The Syria situation has become one of the largest displacement crises in the world.

The inter-agency Syria Regional Response Plan for Syrian Refugees, RRP, Turkey part is a collaborative effort between Turkey, seven UN agencies and IOM, as well as refugees and host communities, under the overall leadership of Turkey and UNHCR, and in close coordination with the donor community, partners and NGOs.

The 6th revision of the Regional Response Plan for Syrian refugees covering 2014 has been reviewed by more than 155 partners, examining achievements, needs and funding flows. The partners have been compelled to reduce requirements by more than USD 500 million, bringing the budget requirements to USD 3.74 billion for the region. In the RRP6, Turkey’s requirement was set as USD 522,379,683 in the beginning of the year, and after mid-year revision the required amount is revised to USD 497,290,571.

While there have been significant achievements, very basic and crucial gaps remain and needs are growing. RRP partners foresee heightened volatility and continued outflows. RRP partners estimate that there will be 3.59 million refugees by December 2014, of whom 1 million are foreseen to be registered in Turkey.

Despite generous contributions from donors to the regional response, the RRP6 is only 30 per cent funded for all countries. Given the magnitude of the crisis, a 30 per cent funding level leaves very many critical humanitarian needs unmet.

It is important to note that Turkey is hosting the second largest Syrian refugee population, but has only received 17 per cent funding, which is the lowest funding level compared to other countries hosting Syrian refugees (Funding levels of other countries hosting Syrian refugees in the region are: Jordan 40%, Lebanon 33%, Iraq 24%, Egypt 23%).

Turkey estimates the total number of Syrians in the country to be over 1 million. As of 2 July 2014, Turkey is hosting over 795,500 registered refugees both in and out of camps from Syria. This represents 28 per cent of all Syrian refugees in the region.

Turkey leads the refugee response and extends Temporary Protection to all Syrians in Turkey. To date, Turkey has established 22 camps hosting almost 220,000 Syrians in 10 provinces and registered some 577,000 Syrians outside of the camps—72 per cent of Turkey’s total Syrian registered refugee population. Significant efforts are being made at the local level to address the urgent needs of the growing urban refugee population. Registration is still ongoing in many urban centres across the country and the number of Syrian refugees is likely to continue to increase further.

Besides the free access to health services for refugees both living in and outside of the camps, Turkey is providing food, shelter and education as well as vocational trainings in camps. Turkey has spent USD 3.5 billion for the Syria response. Turkey will continue to provide protection and assistance to Syrians, however it is also calling for support from the international community as a sign of solidarity and to ensure the same level of assistance to be sustained in the camps and more importantly, to ensure that assistance can be delivered to vulnerable refugees in urban areas.

Failing to provide the required level of humanitarian support to Syrian refugees through the RRP would not only have dramatic consequences for each Syrian refugee, girl, woman, boy and man, but would also ultimately represent a heightened threat to peace and security in the region.

Investing today in ensuring that basic protection and assistance needs of every refugee are met in accordance with international standards is investing in the future of Syria and the region as a whole.

RRP participating UN agencies would like to emphasize that funding remains the main challenge for all agencies in Turkey to best position themselves to provide support for Turkey’s response to the Syrian crisis. UN agencies are calling for robust support from the international community as a sign of solidarity and responsibility sharing with Turkey.

For every $1 million not mobilized:

• 26,300 children will not have sustained access to schooling which will increase the risk of child labour, early marriage, heighten the potential for involvement in criminal activities, recruitment into armed groups and exposure to sexual and gender-based violence.
• Communicable disease surveillance and response, including immunization, to mitigate morbidity and mortality cannot be strengthened, affecting an average of 192,000 Syrians as well as members of the host communities.
• Over 26,000 Syrians in camps or out-of-camp areas will have inadequate WASH facilities or access to sanitary materials, which may lead to outbreaks of communicable diseases in camps or communities where refugees are hosted.

For any information on Syrian emergency response: http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees

Joint Press Release by the Regional Response Plan partners in Turkey – Regional Response Plan for Syrian Refugees Revised in mid-2014 highlights a big funding gap